This week introduced me to NM3507 – Drawing Publication, to be very frank I did not have an idea of what exactly “art publication” actually meant, well - now I know. It essentially references two (in my case, totally interconnected) interlinking vectors – practice (active creation and presentation of works) and text(writing about art and or getting your art written about).
I think that perhaps this subject is going to initially require three important moves for me to engage effectively:
1. First I need to accept that my work is potentially of value (there is no point engaging art practice if one does not feel worthy of things to say and show)…
2. Also, I must be mindful of the ‘endgame’ during my production stages – thoughts of the installation, of the marketing and of the quality of materials and presentation standards must become fore grounded actively (I am not typically that strategic by nature, so this will be a great learning curve)
3. Finally, I need to begin to start networking (Understanding that I am not at all aware of the boundaries, contents or pathways existing in this ‘network’ – so I must find this out first – see: industry pathways)
1. First I need to accept that my work is potentially of value (there is no point engaging art practice if one does not feel worthy of things to say and show)…
2. Also, I must be mindful of the ‘endgame’ during my production stages – thoughts of the installation, of the marketing and of the quality of materials and presentation standards must become fore grounded actively (I am not typically that strategic by nature, so this will be a great learning curve)
3. Finally, I need to begin to start networking (Understanding that I am not at all aware of the boundaries, contents or pathways existing in this ‘network’ – so I must find this out first – see: industry pathways)
So, what am I thinking for my work at this stage?
For the practical project component of NM3507– I am going to attempt to extend on works I began last semester – a series called “acknowledging country”, this is a great opportunity to see just how far I can push a theme.
This subject has a high theoretical content – 50%, so I decided to build this blog – to act as my e-journal (and it will serve the added function of providing a strong pathway for my publishing in a very practical way).
In today’s lecture we were exposed to artprice
Brief overview of artprice:
It is the largest art market in the world, an online publication industry built from catalogues of work. Begun in France, this site works to collate, publish, educate, archive and market.
For me it is useful at this stage for researching purposes … as Dr. Anne Lord pointed out that amazingly this site is a documentary base of 300,000 works, 115 million artworks, 1,000 Terabytes and 1,400 university campuses. I found that looking at the way pricing works particularly interesting.
Also we looked at setting the scene – national, state, regional and networks within and between… (See: industry pathways for more information)
Key Challenges for this week:
1. Begin to build Blog.
2. Search and Identify publication styles, techniques and opportunities from a variety of sources.
3. Work on answering the question - What identifies your project as exciting and worthy of people’s time to read/view/visit?
4. Investigate local venues for the exhibition of art - consider opportunities.
Week 2:
This week we focused on developing insights into (and therefore strategies for) getting our work published – by looking at how particular artists are represented and written about – both in what galleries do and by tracing the history of an artists working life.
Dr. Lord presented the example of the GBK (Gallery Barry Keldoulis ) promotion and exhibition of Daniel Tempelman’s show – ‘Prospect’ and Sarah Smuts-Kennedy’s ‘another day in paradise’. Dr. Lord suggested that "it may be a strategy of the gallery to show two well-known artists or one more popular [established] than the other."
The online content that markets the exhibition has many high quality images, links between and to the two artists work as well as to the invitation and to previous exhibitions and literature published about the artists and their work. This site provides a great example of web-based showcasing of a contemporary art exhibition.
Here is an example of an essay linked to: http://www.gbk.com.au/sites/gbk.10group.com.au/files/DT_2006gbkCat.pdf (
note- The insights I gained through this concentrated exemplar task include
- How important the written word is to accompany visual images.
- Importance of finding people who can write about your work
- How vital it is to clearly and powerfully presents the ideas behind your work.
In light of this I have established a ‘tracing mentors’ page in this blog, and here I will trace key artists working histories.
Furthermore on my industry pathways page I include an ‘alternatives’ section which has some interesting and innovative marketing strategies that my research has uncovered.
Lastly, this week we also had a visit from JCNN editor, Kylie Davis, who offered us the opportunity to illustrate the online humour columns written by JCU journalism students… should be interesting and a nice light relief from my main project too – it is interesting how breaking out and doing something totally off track can inspire new tangents (Dr. Lord suggested we all do at least one submission for next week).
Week 3:
First point this week was the fabulous Vernon Akees' installation on Cockatoo Island (as part of the Sydney Biennale) so beautiful, seriously makes an argument for scaling up your work, what power is gained from ‘greater-than-life-size’ works – Dr. Lord showed us that, "...the works were installed in a large hall, partially exposed to exterior environment, a disused boat-building factory on Cockatoo Island, in Sydney Harbour. A second ‘gallery’ of his works was in toilets on the other end of the island."
Next we were asked to look up ‘Umbrella Gallery’ [n.b.: did this and now plan to join – what a great space and very supportive of student work
Then we viewed the site Artbabble, specifically William Kentridges’ clever publication technique using projection and a curved mirror (Link:http://www.artbabble.org/video/william-kentridge-season-5-preview-october-2009 ).
note - This inspired me to begin to think about alternative ways to publish – particularly about drawing on things other than paper – so I looked into this... and one interesting thing I found is James Morrisons' work, Worm blood dripping [as exhibited in the "2010 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art - before and after science "]. Interesting work - and papier mâché has never looked so fabulous! - a really inexpensive, easily transportable and endlessly versatile media to work with, I have not worked in 3D for a long time, and after getting to know Anselm Kiefer over the last few weeks [see: tracing mentors page], I am actually itching to branch out this way.
Also, artbabble is generally useful for browsing – plenty of different publication concepts, indeed it is a technique in and of itself.
Another point of contemplation this week is, How am I going to create a strong, conceptually tight and visually unified body of work?
We explored the potentials of developing ideas that go further than simply experimenting with colour, tone, and texture – and began to see how we can extend to experimenting with ideas and abstract visual elements in response to a particular theme, topic and/or concept, Anne gave us two examples:
1.Goya and his series of emotive and disturbing, war inspired works titled the black paintings. (Link: http://www.spanisharts.com/prado/goya.htm)
1.Goya and his series of emotive and disturbing, war inspired works titled the black paintings. (Link: http://www.spanisharts.com/prado/goya.htm)
2. Then, in stark contrast to the Goya works, we considered the late watercolour paintings of Cezanne (Link: http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/cezanne/ ).
note - Perhaps I need to move from my ink drawings, try out watercolours (this was the media used in our practical tutorial today – my first time!) I want to have a look at using the ideas of ‘writing histories’ marking the land as landscape/ as country/ as place – discursive constructions as acting on the land – overwriting etc. through using text in my work (a la Kiefer).
And in other news….
Last week we were asked to submit digital images for publication on JCNN – I got one published.
My “Julia’s suffrage” is an accompaniment to an article about the rise of the ‘gingers’ as a minority group now represented by our own Lady Ranga PM.
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| Link to article: http://www-public.jcu.edu.au/jcnn/humourus/JCUPRD1_058263 |
note - I also submitted two further works later this week – one is now published and the other is pending approval - what an interesting and challenging exercise this has been...
This illustration references an article on ‘Generation Y’ being ‘lazy bums’:
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| Link to article: http://www-public.jcu.edu.au/jcnn/humourus/JCUPRD1_060620 |
And this illustrates an article on the dating scene or ‘mating habits of the upper primates’ (in Townsville), full of observational humour referencing the rise of peacock-chicks and men wearing ‘salmon-pink’
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| My submission- not accepted. |
Week 4:
This week we looked at presentation techniques for paper and printed products and also online displays – with the example of Jay Youngerhttp://www.schubertcontemporary.com.au/Contemporary/Links/younger_jay.htm
However, of more focus for me this week was the overview Dr. Lord gave of our assessment – it is intimidating the scope of this class, so glad I got on task early. The overview is really handy – great reference for later and highly strategic (something I am determined to get better at this semester!)
My "checklist of success" for the research journal =
Do you identified working methods
At this stage: I will be working in a variety of media to create a series that utilize the powerfully (figuratively, symbolically and biologically) ‘Australian’ vision of the Eucalypt or Gum-tree stands, in a series of contemplative works on paper.
Have you explained all central themes?
Negotiating links to country – representations of reality – reality as a subjective dwelling in - histories as stories – landscape painting as a discourse of power – contemporary negotiations of country, space, power and place in Australian society – how discourse overwrites and underscores.
What is my Proposal (with working title)?
To create a series of works for exhibition titled (tentatively at this point) tracing the line – country-landscape-place.
My aim being to at best generate interest enabling this work to be published as a gallery exhibition, and/or to both generate interest in my works online and create works considered for the end of year BOSS exhibition at JCU.
Explored Genre: Practical or Theoretical and/or Topic, (Awareness of genre and/or topic, and context with potential for ongoing visual investigation for practical assignment 2)
Practical Genre
Contemporary issue driven art
Theoretical Genre
The subjective realities we dwell in and the many discourses of power that create authoritative histories. How then, these act to enable or disallow particular interpretations and visions-versions of the world. This philosophic wandering is contextualized and thought out in the personalised spaces surrounding country/ landscape and place in Australia.
Week 5:
This week we were asked to think about platforms for publication both digital and print based (and links between). I found the concept of a 'zine' valuable (viewed Angela Hughes and Cass Cataldo’s 'zines' created as element of honours project and also available at honours exhibition) – It made me think about the viability of creating a postcard as a marketing vehicle (must ask Anne about this next week). We whizzed through the lecture today so here are links to investigate later this week, GOTO:
Link to cloud print
Thinking particularly about:
The publication is about the quality of the experience, e.g. reading from a computer on your lap or a book in bed etc.
Also more technical variations of this discussion, e.g. operating system (Mac OS, Vista and Windows)…
note - This matters!!! – Tried to do e-tax this week, and cannot due to incompatibility – very frustrating and the last thing you want for a publication is to put the audience off due to technical issues!
note - This matters!!! – Tried to do e-tax this week, and cannot due to incompatibility – very frustrating and the last thing you want for a publication is to put the audience off due to technical issues!
Also these:
In contemplating digital platforms I found some interesting ideas (see: industry pathways page).
Week 6:
This week we looked at ‘Experiences: working with industry in publishing.
We viewed the Commonwealth Governments site marketing Australian art to an international audience (Link: http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/ andhttp://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/stories/ - this page is very interesting and has inspired me to actually use the Home page of my blog for ‘stories’ – links between my inspirations and a more narrative approach to blogging about my work… think this will be valuable)
- However: The previous web site is archived by National Libraryhttp://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/website/category/ZXTA46~Visual+Arts+and+Crafts;+Magazines+and+Publications
What a shame this has ceased to operate - “closed on 1 July 2010” – See: Communiqué - Culture Portal closure.
Another interesting site /significant link is the Blurb http://www.theblurb.com.au - opportunities for writing on art.
Also adding more links to my industry pathways page- these offered by Dr. Lord
The Broadsheet , this digital publication has some impressive and important essays and images of artist’s work for each article. N.B. Very esteemed critics and theorists contribute here.
Important tasks for this week:
1. Choose 2 artists to profile – this is on the Tracing mentors page (Dr. Lord recommends
creating a page based on the visual artist, taking ideas from their biography, their art school, people they met, their genre,
Including to the SoCA librarian Anne Lahey for potential publication on their site - http://libguides.jcu.edu.au/creative/
3. Dr. Lord has suggested we begin to consider the layout and costs for print based publications in relation to the examples we have viewed thus far; I will create a new section on my industry pathways page for this soon.
3. Dr. Lord has suggested we begin to consider the layout and costs for print based publications in relation to the examples we have viewed thus far; I will create a new section on my industry pathways page for this soon.
Week 7: September 8
Development of practice based research and publishing - Dr. Lord looked at the following with us:
This is a link to Graham Sullivan’s work. He is an educator who has been able to publish about visual arts and have art practice recognised as research.
Extract
Pollock’s exposure of existing selectivity, exclusivity and partisanship invites the alternative, that is, the practitioner adopts art and ephemera as a process, to investigate, expose and present concepts inherent in signs of decomposing, disintegration and change. The empowering of such practice is supported by Sullivan’s (2005) claim that the capacity for the visual arts to contribute through practice-based research lies in the artist’s contribution to debate and to investigate difference:
The agendas, definitions, and theories that inform research methodologies in the social sciences and human sciences are not so much “embraced” but “embattled” as important similarities and differences in approaches to inquiry are contested and conceptualised. This provides a basis for arguing that the visual arts have an important contribution to make in the quest to know more, but that approach to this shared goal follows a different path (Sullivan 2005, 28).
Sullivan’s reference to methods of inquiry assists my research as I identify challenges and “embattled” zones to expose how some visual artists have chosen to take a different path through an anti-archival and anti-commodity stance in their practice. This path is for me part of a creative and practical area that grew in tandem with gaining knowledge about many aspects of survival in the art-industry. For this inquiry, my journey was enriched through broadening and contextualising existing knowledge of environment, culture, history and location (Lord 2009, up.).
Further to Sullivan’s practice based art is Thompson’s contribution to art and research;
Thompson (2006) concurs with Sullivan’s (2005) accepted position that ‘…the imaginative and intellectual work undertaken by artists is a form of research’ (Sullivan 2005, 223). Thompson consolidates the position:
Works of art are made through a process which, in every significant respect, mirrors processes of inquiry in other fields; they result in products that embody those processes through which information was generated, analyzed, and interpreted (Thompson 2006, 3).
This study consists of artists as mentors who generate information about temporary art, and present how it is analysed and interpreted. In my analysis I discuss visual artists who work across disciplines in environmental sciences, ecology and art to act as agents in challenging an art industry that is also coming to terms with social and economic impact endemic in the twenty-first century. The potential to respond to social and ecological issues drives my creative practice and my aim to contribute to current discourse in visual arts and beyond Lord 2009, up.).
Writing about art and making art about writing means there are artists, who are for instance, Professors of Contemporary Art, write seriously and also exhibit their work in the Sydney Biennale 2007.
And the Blog
‘Without any of his customary wryness or irony, Vidal asserted that the Declaration is one of the supreme creative products of human history. How, he wondered, how did a tiny gaggle of isolated idlers produce one of the great imaginative and pragmatic artefacts of human culture? (4 September 2008 | Posted in Uncategorized | by Ross Gibson).
Must do for this week:
and...
Perc Tucker regional gallery - http://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/recreation/gallery/perctucker/artist_registration
Week 8:
This week we are looking at a regional reference - networking and publishing in place and we therefore located a site - the State Library of Queensland site to look at their fabulous collection of art books
Artists books at the State Library - Queensland
Particularly valuable as both an aesthetic pleasure and also for the technical and theoretical insights. This site acts to catalogue and digitally exhibit a range of artists books - artists of interest include
Jonathan Tse Portrait of an Australian - works at qca? immigrant Chinese - passport excellent
Ten me http://enc.slq.qld.gov.au/vbook/slq/ten-menhirs/index.htmnhirs at Plouharnel, Carnac, Morbihan, Bretagne, France by Jihad Muhammad John Armstrong explores measuring and recording conventions within archaeological practices.
Then: Sandi Rigby - Croajingolong artist statement
This week we are looking at a regional reference - networking and publishing in place and we therefore located a site - the State Library of Queensland site to look at their fabulous collection of art books
Artists books at the State Library - Queensland
Particularly valuable as both an aesthetic pleasure and also for the technical and theoretical insights. This site acts to catalogue and digitally exhibit a range of artists books - artists of interest include
Jonathan Tse Portrait of an Australian - works at qca? immigrant Chinese - passport excellent
Ten me http://enc.slq.qld.gov.au/vbook/slq/ten-menhirs/index.htmnhirs at Plouharnel, Carnac, Morbihan, Bretagne, France by Jihad Muhammad John Armstrong explores measuring and recording conventions within archaeological practices.
Then: Sandi Rigby - Croajingolong artist statement
Where possible we have endeavoured to provide artists’ statements to accompany the artists’ books.
The purpose of the statement is to provide a better understanding of the works by revealing the intentions of the artist. The statement can be a personal reflection on how and why the artist does their work and the relationship between the artist and their work.
G W Bot
Artist’s statement for the artist’s book Offerings
Artist’s statement for the artist’s book Offerings
The most important things in life seem to go mostly unnoticed – all the little gifts and offerings we make to one another or the chance breeze that soothes and renews our feelings for this life as it brushes past our faces – with this in mind I made my artist’s book Offerings.In Buddhist daoist teaching these offerings take the form of woodcuts on paper which are then burnt as an offering or sacrifice. I love this metaphor for the potency, yet ephemerality of life which is signified in this gesture. In the West we cling on to each fragment, message of a life which has come and gone and contained for an instant on paper.That is the beauty of prints, printmaking paper and the artist’s book – it is a reflection of our imprint, as invisible as it may seem on this earth as we come and go.
The statements we have obtained vary greatly in length and detail.
http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibit/online/ab/artists_statementsSandi @ Gallery Oscar
http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibit/online/ab/artists_statementsSandi @ Gallery Oscar
* also just an aside: Talking to Rob in class about frustrations around feeling bogged down in my current series - went adventuring online and found this wondrous free cute little drawing program - nice to start the day with as a loosening up exercise (this is actually a really elegant little program - I think everyone should have a go - there are tools on it that automatically generate ectopic tone!!!) ha.
http://mrdoob.com/120/harmony - NB this program requires firefox.
Here is one of the little doodles I did the other day:
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| Ness Crow, lines of flight-(less-ness) |
Week 9: pre-recess
I have chosen to do a personal exercise that I undertook during Week 4 - using Dr. Lords framework of questions - (the revisited answers are in red)Revisiting week 4 questions
My "checklist of success" for the research journal =
Do you identified working methods
At this stage: I will be working in a variety of media to create a series that utilize the powerfully (figuratively, symbolically and biologically) ‘Australian’ vision of the Eucalypt or Gum-tree stands, in a series of contemplative works on paper.
Now I continued working with ink and bleach - a methodology and means that requires free expression and constant negotiation of media values and form. On a recent trip out to Alligator Creek, to a friends house where I often go to work - I collected a couple of different ochres and (using the learnings gained in a previous drawing class at JCU - with Dr. James Brown) I fashioned myself some pastels, I love them and the return to working with more mutable media (I use charcoal and erasers with the pastels too)
Have you explained all central themes?
Negotiating links to country – representations of reality – reality as a subjective dwelling in - histories as stories – landscape painting as a discourse of power – contemporary negotiations of country, space, power and place in Australian society – how discourse overwrites and underscores.
- The initial series from which these latest works evolved contemplated questions of country - contemporary indigenous and power politics, this theme was always a subset of the greater overriding drive to develop a means of questioning place from a personal perspective - and this is the direct thematic core of these works which trace various ways of viewing a singular place, a remembered place - my first 'place' and the, multitude of interwoven visions, experiences and expressions of this place - for more detail, see: blog post
What is my Proposal (with working title)?
To create a series of works for exhibition titled (tentatively at this point) tracing the line – country-landscape-place.
My aim being to at best generate interest enabling this work to be published as a gallery exhibition, and/or to both generate interest in my works online and create works considered for the end of year BOSS exhibition at JCU.
Perhaps the rejigged working title, tracing the line: space-landscape-mindscape-place
Explored Genre: Practical or Theoretical and/or Topic, (Awareness of genre and/or topic, and context with potential for ongoing visual investigation for practical assignment 2)
Practical Genre
Contemporary issue driven art tick
Theoretical Genre
The subjective realities we dwell in and the many discourses of power that create authoritative histories. How then, these act to enable or disallow particular interpretations and visions-versions of the world. This philosophic wandering is contextualized and thought out in the personalised spaces surrounding country/ landscape and place in Australia tick - but additionally the nature of memory and memorialising; the tracing of line and lines of flight.
Week 10:(after recess)
- Research continues on theory and topical focus, Dr. Anne suggesting we continue to investigate contemporary artists who inform our working practice and are our contemporaries, thus provide us with inspirational pathways and or informative guides into where art is at in Australia at the moment, trends and techniques… For consideration;
In this section I would like to discuss a difficult set of ideas and the resultant serious nature of the work one arts-writer and curator identifies.
The artists are chosen in relation to sites, [you should reflect on your role in this area], production, [how your work responds with image to your topic].
IN relation to your research journal consider:
• what an artist calls research, [your research and topic, and how the images have developed further interpretation,] and
• the background to an artist’s work [where your topic and study originates];
Dr. Lord offers the following link as a good resource for sourcing info on artists:http://channel.tate.org.uk/#media:/media/28211824001&list:/channel/playlists/41815423001&context:/channel/playlists
and follows with this overview of one case in point:
Tate Modern, London.
The exhibition is organized by Tate Modern and is co-curated by Jack Bankowsky, Artforum’s Editor at Large, Alison M. Gingeras, Chief Curator of the François Pinault Collection and Catherine Wood, Tate Modern Curator of Contemporary Art and Performance, assisted by Nicholas Cullinan, Curator, International Modern Art, Tate Modern. Pop Life: Art in a Material World will travel to the Hamburger Kunsthalle from 6 February – 9 May 2010 and then to the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa from 11 June – 19 September 2010. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.
Tate Modern web site states:
Andy Warhol claimed "Good business is the best art." Tate Modern brings together artists from the 1980s onwards who have embraced commerce and the mass media to build their own 'brands'.
Pop Life includes Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and more. (Viewed 8th October, 2010).
These artists are not only successful in presentation, they have people, curators, state and national galleries, critics who write and publish their work to the world.
Press Release
* See my tracing mentors page for similar theoretical research dissection of the work – statement- review-exhibit- review publication cycle.
(viewed 8th October 2010)
Later in the lecture we first looked at: http://www.netsvictoria.org/ - (see industry standards page) – Anne then took us to the following link: Jus' drawn: the proppaNOW collective
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| Vernon Ah Kee |
"Drawing is something that we do. As Aboriginal people, as Blackfellas, drawing is something we all do. For proppaNOW, it is an action, a tool, and a mechanism that we use to communicate our feelings and ideas and it is the beginning of our art-making processes. It is a human trait to recognise or sense the personal in Drawing. Engaging in and with drawing is to acknowledge the uniqueness we each possess as people and as individuals. But spending time with these works is really a window into how we, as a group of artists interact and engage with each other. As proppaNOW, Jus' Drawn is about the energy, easy dialogue, and enthusiasm that our friendships and familiarity with each other generates. Jus' Drawn is then an idea of who we are, where our ideas are drawn from, where we position ourselves in the scope of what we think is ‘Australia'. Jus' Drawn is what we do and how we imagine ourselves." Vernon Ah Kee, proppaNOW, 2010.
http://netsvictoria.org.au/jus-drawn-the-proppanow-collective/ (viewed 10th October 2010).
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| Vernon Ah Kee |
Looking further at proppaNOW:
Linden centre for contemporary arts - who held the opening show (this is a touring exhibition - throughout regional Victoria) here is link: http://www.lindenarts.org/show/2010/0807/
- here source for images and importantly - great idea! - mp3 downloads of artist talks - listen in on their personal reflections on their own exhibited works and on the proppaNOW collective
This 'collective' /group is an interesting idea – the concept of a collective has many benefits.
Thinking through one’s art practice through a dialogue with contemporaries – responding and reflecting throughout the development process as well as presenting multiple perspectives to audiences in one show – collectives are a strong visual arts tradition that offers an exemplar to alternative disciplinary and social organisations. The idea fits closely with the concept of a creative commons – even perhaps ‘the public commons’ – the linkage of both participatory and deliberative democracy really, real engaged functioning pluralistic democracy.
The Jus’drawn exhibition is naturally of great interest and significance for my current art practice, for an overview here is a good article:
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| Richard Bell |
Learning to be proppa : Aboriginal artists collective ProppaNOW
Author: Margo Neale
Senior Research Fellow and Senior Curator at the National Museum of Australia Margo Neale presents an incisive account of the genesis of proppaNOW the Queensland collective of urban Aboriginal Artists who are making waves in Australia and internationally with their intelligent brash art.
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| Jennifer Hird |
Here is an extract:
Unable to wait for the nation to right the wrongs, the proppaNOW collective of artists, having breached the thresholds of tolerance, are applying the brakes to further extinguishment of their rights to the urban expression of their aboriginality. Bell wrote: "Urban Aboriginal Art … is the work of people descended from the original owners of the heavily populated areas of the continent. Through a brutal colonisation process much of the culture has disappeared. However, what has survived is important... The Dreamtime is the past, the present, the future. The urban artists are still telling dreamtime stories albeit contemporary ones. The Dreamings (of the favoured ‘real Aborigines’ from the least settled areas) actually pass deep into Urban territories. In short, the Dreamings cannot be complete without reciprocity between the supposed real Aboriginals of the North and supposed Unreal or inauthentic Aboriginals of the South." [18]
Also here is a fabulous essay by the eminent art philosppher Rex Butler
Extract:
If there is no “proper” Aboriginality, proppaNOW demonstrate that everything in contemporary Australia is complicit with, inseparable from an “improper” Aboriginality. This is precisely the impossibility of place we have been trying to point to here: that Aboriginality is not simply absent but everywhere present, unable to be kept outside or in its proper place.
In all of this it is appropriate that in this show the artists of proppaNOW turn to drawing. Drawing in this light can be seen not so much as some specific artistic practice or medium, but rather as the withdrawal of all artistic qualities or properties: colour, presence, mimetic or at least photographic verisimilitude. It would be as though the drawn line as it proceeds erases its own trace, produces an absence not a presence. It would be as though what we were looking at were a ghost image, a kind of negative, an image of something – Aboriginality – that was no longer there. In its interplay of pencil mark and the white space around it, it would be as though something appears at the same time as it disappears. We could no sooner say that Aboriginality is represented here than it would be shown that it is not, and it is in this again that Aboriginality appears.
- Rex Butler
FROM ME:
I really like this reading of drawing as a practice and a process, it really resonates with my approach to tracing the lines back to a place – the conscious retracing and the acknowledgment of the impossibly elusive yet constructive (or is tha reconstitutive) journey into, back through and within - that no-place.
proppaNOW website - http://proppanow.com/ - here you can apply for the newsletter and view very brief bios of the following: Tony Albert, Vernon Ah Kee, Bianca Beetson, Richard Bell, Jennifer Herd, Gordon Hookey and Laurie Nilsen
Week 11:Oct 14
This week turned focus onto awareness of industry standards again – coinciding with the third year art students in the class preparing for their ‘graduate exhibition’ at Perc Tucker Gallery. Imagining it would be possible for me to participate (I am not eligible – being an education student), I have started working on a larger scale – thinking that knowing Perc Tucker Gallery as a space, I can see the advantage of presenting works which use large scale as a tool for generating visual impact and greater interest in a group show and in a space where much variety of work will be competing for the viewers attention, and the curators too.
Dr. Lord suggested we consider industry standards visiting and familiarising ourselves with the the NAVA web site - this site is hard to exhaust, that is, there are frequent updates for industry standards.
NAVA
Arts Presentation
I found a really interesting recent exhibition:
Contemporary Australian Drawings 1
http://www.rmit.com.au/browse;ID=dqa7mhe3slwo (viewed October 15, 2010)
This exhibition is really very relevant for me, being a great insight into the standard necessary to overview in my research for practice – Contemporary Australian Drawings 1, curated by Dr. Irene Barberis, Director of the international research hub, Metasenta Pty Ltd ®, held from April through July, 2010 at Storey Hall, RMIT City Campus, Contemporary Australian Drawings 1 explores the depth and diversity found in the drawings of the particular artists whose works appear in a new survey on Australian drawing (the forthcoming publication of Dr Janet McKenzie’s Contemporary Australian Drawing.)
Dr. Irene Barberis states
“Each artist has their own language of the mark; that which defines aspects of their practice and response to the world, the everyday and the ‘other’, whether the drawings are the actual interface with the public or are quiet private intimate notations within the process, drawing is an integral aspect to the artist’s thinking, doing, being, working, finding, crafting, musing, saying…”
Dr Janet McKenzie from her introduction to the forthcoming survey on Australian drawing:
"In a global context drawing exists irrespective of cultural identity. It is a basic human instinct to make marks, to draw, to write. It could be perceived as ironic, that charged with the knowledge of new technology and the multitude of new forms and attitudes, that artists have chosen drawing in manifold forms. Over the past ten years, drawing has assumed a pivotal role in defining contemporary culture.
“Drawing at the present moment is seen to occupy a position of critical ascendancy. The conceptual and the subjective, arguably the most vital components of contemporary art practice - connect in drawing more forcibly and more appropriately than in any other form of art. Drawing as a structural and conceptual necessity has become increasingly important for many artists working today. Psychological space can be made to coexist with pictorial space, enabling a personal revision of history."
Here is a link to a Melbournee arts blog which comments on the exhibition - http://melbarts.blogspot.com/2010/06/exhibition-contemporary-australian.html
Arts Marketing
Artists are the producers of a range of goods and services they can offer to the community. Once you’ve developed an idea or skill, or a body of artwork, you need to find ways of getting it out to your audience. Achieving this means bringing together aspects of practice and process (the what, how and why of your art or craft) with aspects of promotion and marketing (understanding who might be interested in what you have to offer, and how to build bridges to them).
Eventually, as an artist becomes more established they may be in a position to employ the services of an agent and or a manager, until then -
Marketing can be a specialised area and many companies have whole departments dedicated to how to market the goods and services they supply. But as an individual artist you may be faced with the prospect of doing most of your marketing yourself. There are a number of publications available that aim to assist visual artists and craftspeople to develop their marketing strategy. Most of these publications recognise the limited resources artists are often working with.
Marketing links and ideas – I have listed and overviewed various links on my industry pathways page
As for me this week, I am just continuing on negotiating the works – I have 6 in total – one dismally failing and 2 almost resolved – see my creations page for pics and overview of works in progress.
Week 12:October 21
Anne helped us thinking about conceptual depth and integrity of vision.
The discussion was framed around the works of AES+F
Their Concept
Technologically,
Aesthetically, (especially colour and tone)
with people, (races) and with place/s.
My concept
place and country
drawing out the tensions of representation and memory
(tracing and tracking)
repetition renewal and redundancy
This week sees the beginning of resolving phases for this series of work, with Anne asking us to present our journal work and practical work for her feedback, although I am not able to bring my works in in physical form for her to view (either too wet (the 2 inks) or too unresolved as yet (the pastel work being delayed by my determination to make my own natural pastels from scratch has delayed those works) I did show her my journal work though and she has again suggested simply to do more of the same theory-wise, and take more time with my practical work to experiment and play.
For the whole class Dr. Lord suggested:
à Over the semester I have discussed the way you can maintain your own style but more importantly take your style further so that you are developing your style with integrity. The words that come up in Encarta for integrity are ‘honesty, truthfulness, honor, veracity, reliability, uprightness.’
These would strike a chord with all of you and assist to reflect on your conceptual and creative development over the subject as well as other areas during the year.
The other word that comes up in Encarta is Ethics [1] and this is an interesting consideration for artists and this of course applies to ‘principles or standards of human conduct, sometimes called morals’ (Encarta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrity viewed 19th October 2009).
I have read and reread the following comments by Dr. Lord also:
à When we look at your practical work and I give critical feedback it is about looking at who you are. It is about what you the individual want to say. That is why you often have my response to questions about what you do in art as: ‘you could consider this option or that opposite option’ and similarly for compositional elements; ‘you could consider black or white [dramatic contrast], large format or miniature, and further; ‘you could consider colour or black and white’.
The same goes for subject matter, you could consider the happy or the sad, the beautiful and / or the ugly. This raises the option for combining a pair of opposites in a work or a series of works.
So all of these options are about how you learn to make your own creative decisions and they contribute to the first half of today’s topic.
‘Maintaining personal style and integrity of vision’.
Creative decision-making is one of the most exciting areas to work in for me, as it allows my creative work and visual direction to be my own. It follows that when this is done you will also have the confidence to take your vision to the publishers.
Then, as you develop the strategies to increase awareness of creative decision-making you are also bringing in serious questions about the way you address the topic from your own perspective. This has more to do with understanding plagiarism and copyright than you might think.
How many artists do you see in magazines that look like another artist? Is this a big issue and how do you move past the genre that other artists have developed. In most cases the onus / responsibility comes back to you where the experience around you might help to validate your perspective as an artist.
Week 13: October 28 on
This week the focus is on Reviews
The section can be linked to opportunities after art school, reporting on the projects, who writes, and how do they write?
Linking ideas and practice.
http://www.artreview.com/group/videoartists (viewed 29th October, 2010)
In this site you can be a member and make comments the artwork shown.
A good introduction to the ‘Review’
The following comes from Wikipedia
A review is an evaluation of a publication, such as a movie, video game, musical composition, book, or a piece of hardware like a car, home appliance, or computer. In addition to a critical statement, the reviews author may assign the work a rating to indicate its relative merit. More loosely, an author may review current events or items in the news.
A compilation of reviews may itself be called a review. The New York Review of Books, for instance, is a collection of essays on literature, culture, and current affairs. National Review, founded by William F. Buckley, Jr., is an influential conservative magazine, and Monthly Review is a long-running socialist periodical. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Review (viewed 26th Oct 2009) [The second and third bolded words were altered by Anne Lord.]
I have already looked quite intensively at reviews (the structure and relevance, opportunities and inherent values through the in depth research on my tracing mentors page. The proforma Dr. Lord offered us is useful though (see below), a new way for me to check I am really achieving an in depth overview of the articles, essays and reviews I am encountering in this research. Though I will not publish my findings in this format, I will use it as an editing and research tool...
For your research journals please find examples of Reviews that reflect the area you work in.
This should incorporate the topic,the place where it is relevant to publish, and the format you feel is relevant to publish.
| Artist /s Name/s | Topic /s Titles Authors | Name of Journal / Blog etc. an d Preview / Review | Format /paper/ online | Comment / Your response |
Next, Anne offered us three main areas to look at:
1. 1. art review
2. 2. Artnet
3. 3. (an exemplar) blog
The November Issue of Art review
(both viewed 26th Oct 2010)
Then during class, in my looking’s I came across this article by Mark Rappolt on the Portugal Arte 10 inaugural biennale festival.
Although interesting in itself and fuelling many a tangent searching for related artists and works, one interesting trail led me to the Brooklyn Art Collective (remembering my interest in the ‘collective’ – Faile and their contribution to the biennale – Temple (2010)
 |
| Source: http://www.papermag.com/arts_and_style/assets_c/2010/08/portugal2-new-thumb-500xauto-29560.jpg |
> Here the collective working as a collaborative group on the same works – looking in this piece at the sacred and the relation to the lived experience and ways of relating/ expressing personal and collective faith and spirituality. The muliplicit readings and renderings – presented so effectively that for the initial reviewer (see article) FAILE instigated a reformed view of the value and power of ‘street art’
Rapport writing:
No one admires ‘street’ art less than I do, but Brooklyn collective Faile’s Temple (2010) was a reason to think I might need to revise that particular stance. A collapsed chapel, executed at a 1:1 scale in stone and steel, and clad in ceramic tiles, it’s an edifice that flickers between a number of identities: part classical ruin, part tiled public convenience, part tabloidesque, comic-book narrative, part archive of past Faile works and all a nonsensical babble of references to Christianity, Buddhism and the vernacular architectures of Brooklyn and Portugal, it features a marble torso sporting a horse’s head and scuba gear as its altarpiece. There could be no better symbol for this cacophonous biennial than that.
For fullscreen sized detailed images (43 in total) goto: http://www.failetemple.net/
Anne's link:
This one reviews magazines
- for example: A review of the Moscow Biennale
seems to be more about name dropping than critique and finishes with the following:
Such is the art world we live in that one's immediate reaction to this is: fake artist! But in this case -- I think -- one would be wrong.
Before saying goodbye to the biennale for another couple of years I paused at the door to the Proun Gallery to watch the people come and go. A lot of the most elegant girls on this chilly evening were wearing very expensive sleeveless fur jackets: a new fashion, as far as I can tell. Eager to expand my Russian vocabulary I turned to Proun Gallery curator Katya Inozemtseva and, pointing to an exquisite creature walking past in one of these things, asked, "What are they called?" "Prostitutes," was her instantaneous reply.
The day following the Vinzavod jamboree I got a call from the BBC Russian Service in London. They wanted to know: isn't Russian contemporary in crisis? Isn't public interest shriveling? Aren't those girls Dasha (Zhukova) and Masha (Baibakova) just a couple of rich useless airheads? I felt bad, because what I thought didn't seem to fit the BBC narrative, but I just had to say no, no and no. The biennale is a success, the best yet; ArtMoscow an ignominious failure (Brown 2009, http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/bown/moscow-biennale9-30-09.asp)
(viewed 26th Oct 2010).
A second example: a review about artist ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE
http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/filippi/robert-mapplethorpe9-24-09.asp (viewed 26th Oct 2010).
… the exhibition, the first of any contemporary art to be hosted by the storied museum, juxtaposes more than 90 pictures by the punk-era photographer who died of AIDS in 1989 with Michelangelo’s David, his four unfinished Prisoners, his unfinished Saint Matthew and several additional works by the Renaissance master (1475-1564).
The curatorial design is straightforward: a "visual dialogue" between the two artists, sparked by Mapplethorpe’s interest in chiaroscuro, his search for formal perfection and his focus on muscular male and female bodies. "Form is understood as a value in itself," said Franca Falletti, director of the Galleria dell’Accademia, and should be considered regardless of any subject matter and "the baggage of personal experience." Indeed, Americans may remember that such an argument was successfully marshaled by the artist’s defenders in 1990 in Cincinnati, where the local constabulary prosecuted seven of Mapplethorpe’s most explicit photos as obscene.
Here in "Perfection in Form," curator Jonathan K. Nelson, chairman of the art history department at Syracuse University in Florence, and the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in New York, which has supplied the prints, wisely omitted Mapplethorpe’s most troublesome work, though perhaps they need not have: Italians are already quite distracted by the prurient shenanigans of a living and breathing person, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Amusingly enough, the memory of Mapplethorpe’s posthumous battles with the censors is yet another point of kinship with Michelangelo, whose nudes in the Last Judgment were considered so indecent in the 16th century that Daniele da Volterra had to "dress them up." (Filippi 2009 http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/filippi/robert-mapplethorpe9-24-09.asp (viewed 26 Oct 2009).
Then the reviewer discusses the amount of money the Mapplethorpe Foundation provides to AIDS , “non-profts” and Galleries such as the Whitney.
Filippi concludes:
Compared to Michelangelo, Mapplethorpe’s photographs, stylish though they may be, come off as kitsch; witness his many photos of bodybuilder Lisa Lyon. They gain their real interest not from their form but their content: as journalism, a record of a certain late-20th-century dandyism, a chronicle of gay bohemia, an examination of unusual sexual desire (Filippi, 2009) http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/filippi/robert-mapplethorpe9-24-09.asp (viewed 26 Oct 2010).
I revisited Artnet later in the week to try and find some relevant articles for my art practice – considering the current works are drawings in both ink and natural pastels/charcoal I thought looking into where drawing is at was valuable and found this:
http://www.artnet.com/magazine/features/tuchman/tuchman12-17-02.asp (accessed 25 October, 2010)
Phyllis Tuchman article Talking “Drawing Now”
"Drawing Now: Eight Propositions" is the sort of contemporary art show the Museum of Modern Art pioneered. Besides being big, bold and provocative, it's filled with work by artists you expect to get to know better as they grow older. To mount a group exhibition like this one, a number of factors need to exist: a new wave of artists to herald, strong institutional support and a talented curator with a good eye who can write persuasive catalogue text. Laura Hoptman, who was an assistant curator in MoMA's drawing department from 1995 to 2001, rose to the occasion and then some when she selected this edition of "Drawing Now."
The article is essentially a conversation between Tuchman and the curator Hoptman. Interesting is the foregrounding of figurative and illustrative artworks over the (arguably more established or accepted genre) of abstracted and/or process orientated drawing.
Two examples of the ‘Drawing Now: Eight propositions” exhibition
Finally,
3. The blog
- Anne then asked “Should we also consider the Blog a serious form of advertising, reviewing and getting your message out there.”… offering this link as an exemplar:
http://www.liquidarchitecture.org.au/festival-2009-blog (viewed 26th October 2010) - This has just been used by a Masters candidate in SoCA as a form of collecting data for her research.
Well, obviously, considering my personal decision to engage in the production of this blog as an active tool for publishing – I believe blogging is a vital tool for all contemporary art practitioners.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>BEYOND WEEK 13 - MOVING FORWARDS AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS
A desiring – an emphatic engagement with the physicality of mark making and the nature of various materials while occupying the ambiguous zone between abstraction and representation. Drawing as intrinsic to practicing observing and realizing visions –
http://www.arthouse42.com/affordableart
A way to sell art online – need to upload quality images and work out pricing
http://www.australiangalleries.com.au/index.php?option=com_ag&task=works&id=85 - john Wolseley images – need to get a curatorial reference or three
http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/art/contemporaryartists/ and go to reg mombassa bit for hot quote on seeing euro eyes
http://www.evabreuerartdealer.com.au/robinson.html William Robinson
Again
http://www.visualarts.qld.gov.au/content/robinson_home.asp?name=Robinson_Home
Yvette swan http://www.metrogallery.com.au/artists/27/yvette-swan/
http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/agsa/home/Learning/docs/Online_Resources/ED04_Biennial_Ed_Pack_FINAL.pdf
Social/political comment
Silvia Velez, Linda Wallace – work related to global tension/terrorism issues and
Community response
Mike Parr – use of performance to re-present situations related to Australian’s response
to treatment of refugees.
Destiny Deacon – Indigenous and personal perspectives on cultural identity as
Negotiated between black and white Australians
Australian landscape – as physical/symbolic space
Rosemary Laing – European emblems of occupancy and cultural values up in flames
Bronwyn Wright – human and natural dramas acted out in a clay swamp
James Guerts – tidal zones as metaphors for the arrival of refugees in Australian waters
David Haines – Nature torn apart and rebuilt
Derek Kreckler – beachscapes as sites for consideration of the relationship between
two-dimensional and three-dimensional reality.
Cultural significance and identity
Adam Geczy (in association with Peter Sculthorpe) – collective memory examined within
a context of Pt Arthur
Liu Xiao Xian - reconciling cultural memories with living in a new land
Craig Walsh – art and art galleries as anchoring points of identity
Australian landscape
Is it possible to describe what the expression ‘relationship with the land’ actually means?
From colonial times to the present, non-Indigenous Australian artists have continued to
illustrate or interpret personal responses to particular Australian landscapes. Why has
this tradition been sustained? What has it been saying about senses of relationship with
land?
Can anything new be added or said?
Can photo-media based practice bring anything new to this tradition?
Is there any common ground between Indigenous and non-Indigenous landscape-
related art?
Do any of the works in this exhibition present some new or personally interesting
perspectives linked to the idea of relationship with land?
Imants tillers http://www.artaustralia.com/article.asp?issue_id=192&article_id=263
Michelle ussher http://www.artaustralia.com/article.asp?issue_id=175&article_id=69
http://www.artaustralia.com/article.asp?issue_id=175&article_id=69
